


Longing For What Used To Be

by corruptedteacups



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, F/F, F/M, First Kiss, Flashbacks, Gen, I don't ship it but it's canon, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Klaus Hargreeves Is A Bisexual Icon, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, M/M, Marijuana, Mild Luther/Allison hate?, Multi, Recreational Drug Use, Teen Crush, The Umbrella Academy (TV) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-21 08:22:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20690432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corruptedteacups/pseuds/corruptedteacups
Summary: The Hargreeves find their own fun in the dark streets of the city and find a friend along the way, a ghost from the past that Klaus isn't scared to see.





	1. 13 Going On 30

They came in a lot, always late at night, always together. Suddenly, they stopped coming at all. She read in the papers that one of them had disappeared, it never listed who or how, but she guessed that’s why she never saw five ever again. Or any of them ever again.

At least not in person.

She saw them in the news when they were still crime fighting, she walked past their house every once in a while, she saw Allison Hargreeves in all her fame and glory, she read the book written by Vanya Hargreeves, but she never crossed paths with them again. Until now.

She felt like she was thirteen all over again, sitting at the corner table with her homework, waiting on her mom to get off the late shift. Except now, she wasn’t a teenager grueling over math homework with her third strawberry milkshake, she was cursing at the coffee stains speckling her third draft of her term paper through a mouthful of hash browns. Plus, this was a completely different diner.

It took her a while to figure out where exactly she knew him from, especially from behind the cigarette smoke and cold frost of the diner windows, but once he had sprawled himself across the booth next to her everything finally clicked together.

“Klaus?”

He seemed surprised, blinking through smeared eyeliner, but when the haze cleared and he focused in on her it seemed that he remembered too.

_It had been raining all night, she didn’t know why they decided to sneak out tonight of all nights. But there they were, all five of them soaked through but laughing as they shook out their hair and piled into a nearby table. She had only spoken to them a couple of times, once when one of them accidentally bumped into her on their way out, and another where they had asked to borrow some napkins from her table when Luther accidentally crushed jelly across their table. It had been Five who asked her, scrambling over the back of the booth and confidently waltzing up to her. _

_Now they fell into the booth behind her, three of them laughing as the other two argued on. She had been reading the same page of her assigned reading for the last twenty minutes, feet falling asleep in bright sneakers tucked under her legs as she fiddled at the holes in her jeans. A few minutes later a tentative hand poked at her shoulder, dark eyes avoiding hers when she turned around. The boy who had nudged her said nothing, shrinking down into his seat. The boy next to him turned around a few moments later, shaking his head and overzealously patting the other’s cheek. He bounced as he turned to kneel on the cracking vinyl, green eyes bright with mischief. _

_“Hi, nice to meet ya, we were wondering if you could help settle a…uh, little argument by lending us a pen.”_

_“Uh…sure.”_

_She didn’t know if he had heard her until he held out a hand with a flourish, watching her shuffle through her pencil case before gingerly placing a felt tip into his hand. _

_“Danke.”_

_Spinning around in his seat he handed the pen to the boy across from him. The other boy uncapped it quickly, leaning over the pastel table and shoving aside the sugar container and bracing himself against it. It took a few seconds for her to register what he was doing, quickly turning herself around in her seat. _

_“Hey! Don’t write on the table! I have paper...fuck.”_

_Sloppily ripping a sheet of paper from her math notebook, she set it on the table in front of them with a pointed look. It took everything not to roll her eyes at the sarcastic smile she got from the one preparing to write on the tabletop, instead resting her chin on the back of the booth and watching him begin to scrawl out whatever it was they were fighting about. She vaguely could hear the music from the headphones around her neck, reaching down and flipping it off. The boy behind her shifted, turning to look at the loss of background noise before locking eyes with her. _

_He grinned, scruffy hair curling around the crinkled of his eyes. She couldn’t help but smile back, an expression barely visible over the thick sleeve of her army jacket as she curled her arms under her cheek to rest. They both turned their attention back to the table when the boy abruptly stood and pointed down at his drawing._

_“See! I told you it works!”_

_“Diego, that’s not-“_

_“You didn’t include the weight of the projectile and gravity’s effect on it, your math’s wrong.”_

_The entire table of boys turned to look at her, and immediately she wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The one they called Diego looked furious, staring down at the paper with a tight jaw. The one behind her was grinning ear to ear, looking back and forth between her and his brother. It wasn’t until the only one she knew the name of before tonight, Five, cleared his throat and leaned his elbows on the table that anyone said anything. _

_“And who are you?”_

_“…Danielle.”_

_“You’re in here a lot.”_

_“My mom works here.”_

_“Figur-Ow! Dammit Klaus!”_

_The one behind her, Klaus, straightened up again, retracting his long legs into his seat. The biggest one was bent over, shoulders shifting as she guessed he was rubbing some part of his body that had been hurt by Klaus. _

_“You don’t have to be a jerk Luther.”_

_“Shut up!”_

_Diego slammed the pen down onto the paper and pushed it towards her. _

_“Show me, smart girl.”_

_She laughed, turning back around in her seat and returning to her book. _

_“I don’t even know you guys.”_

_The entire booth shook as two of them vaulted over her seat, shiny dress shoes squeaking against the vinyl covering and tile floors as the lot of them piled into her booth. Luther reluctantly slid into the side opposite her besides Diego and the one that had instigated all of this. Looking to either side of her, Five and Klaus were the culprits of the commotion, the latter shrugging out of his jacket and tossing it into the floor next to him. It was quickly kicked under the table when one of the waitress’s stopped by to take their order, the distraction not lasting long before their attention returned to her. The quiet one spoke up._

_“Will you please explain, they’ve been arguing about this all day.”_

_“What’s your name?”_

_“…Ben.”_

_She didn’t let his small smile go unnoticed, slowly pulling_ _the paper towards her and beginning to scratch out the scrawled math from before. It was a few minutes of silence, a few minutes of Klaus leaning over her shoulder, a few minutes of Diego staring at her with his arms crossed. Finally, she finished, closing the textbook she had opened for help and pushing the paper to the center. _


	2. Running Just As Fast As We Can

Klaus looked like he’d seen a ghost, running his hands over his face before blinking through his fingers and climbing to his feet.

_“C’mon smart girl, come sit with us.”_

_“I have a name.”_

_“Danielle, please.”_

_“Yeah, we only get so much interaction outside of the family.”_

_Looking up from her book, she sighed when she found Klaus grinning at her from across the diner with Diego and Five leaning over his shoulder. It didn’t take much of that for her to be swayed, already bored from being there for hours. Closing her book and clumsily sliding her things into her backpack, she slid out of her place sprawled across the booth and headed across the tile. The rest of them moved together, Klaus standing up with a bounce and smiling down at her. She paused, slightly startled at how close he had been when he stood. He was much taller than her, he was taller than most of his siblings, but he had at least a head over her when standing up straight. _

_He stared at her for a moment, just far enough in her way that she couldn’t squeeze around him without her shoulder shoving into his chest. She blinked up at him, raising a brow and trying to figure out what the hell he was staring at. All it took was a cough from Five to bring him back to life, dopey grin springing onto his face as he slid aside with a flourish. Sliding into the seat, her thighs instantly stuck to the warmed cushion and she quickly placed her hoodie back into her lap to hide them. _

_The boys had never made a comment about her appearance, they were too polite and they were basically still kids, but puberty had already taken a heavy toll on her and she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about it. Plus, public school really sucked, especially for someone like her._

_ They never really asked much about her private life, they mostly wanted to know basic information about what kids their age were supposed to be doing. For their own schooling, they had just told her that they were homeschooled, but it didn’t take long for her to put the pieces together on who they were. It was never the right time to ask, there were always too many people around, or there was something better to talk about. But she wondered, really wondered, what their life was like. _

_Klaus slid into the seat next to her, leg bumping against hers slightly as he settled in. The table was quiet for a second, the five of them awkwardly shuffling while her mom set down water for all of them before returning to her other customers. Diego shot his straw wrapper at Ben, who huffed softly in defeat, while Klaus took to emptying sugar packets into his drink. Clearing her throat, she tugged the long sleeves of her shirt over her hands as she set them on the table._

_“Where’s Luther?”_

_“Being gross at home.”_

_“Huh?”_

_“He and Allison have become harder to separate than gum from a park bench.” _

_She snorted into her drink, Five’s dry description sending her into a fit of giggle while Ben fake gagged beside her. _

_“Isn’t that kind of weird?”_

_“What?”_

_“You guys are like, siblings, right?”_

_“Well, yeah, but we aren’t like, blood related at all.”_

_Klaus slid down in his seat and tossed his long arms across the back of it as he spoke, tugging at his tie to loosen it. She had only met Allison a couple of times, their sisters joining them on their late-night escapades occasionally, but when she was with them, she was all but glued to Luther’s side. Vanya was even more elusive, once venturing out to meet her but barely talking the entire time aside from asking about the music Danielle had playing from her headphones. _

_“It’s kinda weird when they give each other those looks over breakfast.”_

_“At least we have separate rooms.”_

_“Yeah, that doesn’t mean much, I have to live beside them. You don’t hear the whispering in the hallway.”_

_“Is it really that much different then-“_

_“Shit!”_

_Diego quickly stood up, shaking the water from his shirt before turning on Klaus, who spoke through gritted teeth. If looks could kill, they both would be six feet under._

_“Oh, I’m so sorry, my hand slipped.”_

_“You know what, I’m kind of sick of donuts. Don’t you all ever go anywhere else?”_

_That distracted them all quickly enough to keep Diego from ripping Klaus’s throat out, all four boys turned to look at her with curious expressions. Nudging Klaus out of his seat, she quickly set her bag behind the counter and gestured to her mother, who responded back by only tapping her wrist and holding up a time. Clipping her wallet to her belt and tucking it into her back pock she rejoined them, glancing from Klaus’s dripping wet hair and slowly soaking shirt to the empty water glass on the table before rolling her eyes at Diego’s pleased expression. _

_“C’mon.”_

_“Where are we going?”_

_“Don’t know. What do you guys feel like?’_

_“I could eat.”_

_Looking back at Diego she could only nod, leaning back on the door and letting the bell chime as it swung open. Five strolled past her, glancing idly in her direction before chuckling to himself and nodding at the chain swinging by her hip._

_“You won’t be needing that, promise.”_

_The rest followed, taking off into the street with her sneakers squeaking behind them, running to catch up. When she caught up, she fell behind them, shoving her hands into her pockets and kicking at a can that crossed her path. They were bantering on where to eat, loudly, to the dismay of anyone who passed them. Klaus was speaking when she came within earshot again. _

_“What about waffles, everyone loves waffles.”_

_“It’s the middle of the night.”_

_“So?”_

_Five, Diego and Ben continued the argument without him, falling behind as they aimlessly continued towards the more well populated areas of the city. She fell in step beside him, sitting in comfortable silence until she noticed his shivering. His shirt was nearly sheer, clinging to his gangly shoulders and dripping water onto his shoes as he walked. It was surprising he wasn’t complaining. He turned when she shrugged out of her jacket, shoving the dark fleece towards him. _

_“You’ll get sick if you stay like that.”_

_“You’re too kind.”_

_Smiling at his extravagant bow, she shoved it into his chest before quickly turning away when he tugged his shirt off in one quick movement and tossed it into a nearby alleyway. _

_“Klaus!”_

_“What? You’re the one that offered.”_


	3. Got A Secret, Can You Keep It?

“How’ve you been?”

He tapped the pack of cigarettes on the windowsill, fiddling with them as he stared at her from across the table. The waitress walked by, notepad in hand, but he shook his head with a soft smile. Danielle wasn’t entirely sure how to approach the situation, closing her notebook and crossing her arms on the table.

“Fine, in school…again, what about you?”

“Oh, you know me, just…enjoying life.”

_“Klaus!”_

_She didn’t think he heard her at first, turning awkwardly in a circle before grinning up at her. They both took off for their respective doors, Danielle opening the door downstairs so he wouldn’t have to buzz and sticking her head out into the hallway. Torn converse squeaked as he strolled down the hallway, hopping to a stop in front of her with his hands shoved in his pockets. Danielle couldn’t help but smile through her words. _

_“What’s the password?”_

_“We don’t have a password.”_

_“Right, so you better think of a good one, quick.”_

_“8008135.”_

_“What’s that?”_

_“The password.”_

_He giggled as he slid past her, skipping into the parentless apartment. Quickly they migrated into her room, sprawling across the rug and flipping through the movies she had in her collection. The Hargreeves kids had been over to her house before, but it was usually a larger percentage. Klaus had asked if they could watch movies the last time the siblings had come to hang out while she did homework at the diner, and she had assumed that he meant all of them, but seeing him standing alone at the bottom of her fire escape clarified the situation. It wasn’t that surprising, she and Klaus got along on topics that the other siblings did not, and the conversations they had together were often cut short. He always seemed interested in whatever she was wearing or listening to, and by this point he had a handful of her old clothes as she quickly grew out of them. _

_Danielle’s mother was working the late shift tonight, not getting off till the beginning of the next morning, so she was confident that she wouldn’t be caught with a boy in her room, Though, she wasn’t entirely sure that this boy in her room would be scandalous, but they hadn’t had that conversation yet. Sometimes she really wondered, sometimes it really made her upset, but most of the time she was just happy to be with her friends. _

_Finally they picked an older movie, Klaus turning to raiding the kitchen for snacks and Danielle creating a nest in the floor by covering her beanbags with pillows and blankets. Curled up in checkerboard fleece and bathed in the green light from her lava lamp, they settled in to idly talking through the DVD’s previews. Klaus already had chip dust on his face, sending her into a fit of giggles that jumbled her question._

_“How’s everyone else?”_

_“Oh, you know, dysfunctional.”_

_“Has Five convinced the overlord to let him time travel yet?”_

_“The ass is as hard as always.”_

_She almost snorted soda from her fit of giggles, coughing into her sleeve and shrugging out of the soiled hoodie when her lungs started working again. They fell into silence, starting the movie and sinking down into their blankets. The silence didn’t last long, the film barely holding their interest before they fell back into talking. Eventually they got into her laptop, scrolling through her social media so she could give reference to some of the happenings at school. In the midst of scrolling through some school play photos she had uploaded from her camera, Klaus stopped her, gesturing at one of the boys on her screen._

_“He’s cute.”_

_“You think? He’s okay, he’s nice, a little too sporty for me.”_

_“Don’t like the athletic types huh?”_

_“Nah.”_

_“So, Luther and Diego have no chance.”_

_He giggled as she nudged him away, rolling her eyes and setting her laptop aside. _

_“Very funny.”_

_“No, I’m serious, well…partially. Diego did have a thing for you for a while there. Of course, that was before we realized you were crushing on Five.”_

_“I am not!”_

_“Uh-huh.”_

_“I’m not!”_

_“You’re a really shitty liar.”_

_Sighing, she turned to face him. Holding out a hand, she couldn’t help but smile when her took it quickly, eyes twinkling in interest. It took her a few minutes to plan how to say this, chewing at her lip until she finally cleared her throat and shook her hair out of her eyes. She knew Klaus too well. _

_“Fine, I may have a little crush on Five. But it’s not near as bad as my other crush, but that one I’m sure they don’t like me back.”_

_“Why?”_

_“I don’t know if they like girls that way.”_

_“Well, that’s a shitty excuse. You can just ask.”_

_“Maybe one day, when the time is right. Now, promise me you won’t tell.”_

_“I won’t tell Five you like him.”_

_“No, none of it. You can’t tell anyone, any of it. Especially not Allison.”_

_The worry in her eyes must have convinced him that she was serious, nodding once before dropping his hand from hers. Falling back into silence, they both fell back into their seats, getting comfortable. _


	4. Locked in a Haze

“How’s your mom?”

“She’s okay, she’s working still, but she has a desk job instead of waitressing.”

Danielle didn’t know if she should bring up his dad, she guessed he hadn’t miraculously healed their relationship in the last decade or so. It was worth a shot to see if they could work past the awkwardness between them, the kind that always hangs over any two people trying to play catch up.

“Is the overlord still…”

“A jackass? Yeah, probably, I’ve not been home in…”

He tried to count on his fingers, stretching his hands across the table to lean against it once he gave up.

“…a while.”

_“How the hell did you manage to sneak out in the middle of the day?”_

_They’re not going to miss me.”_

_Klaus laid himself across her bed, untying his shoes above his head and tossing them into her floor. She didn’t miss the small bag that he snuck into his pocked from his sock, letting him take his time in getting to telling her about it. Locking the bedroom door behind them, she sat herself next to him, feeling him roll into her hip as the bed dipped._

_“I’m not going to have the rest of the Umbrella Academy breaking my door in am I?”_

_"Nah, I’ll probably just get yelled at when I get home.”_

_They sat in silence for a few minutes, her homework forgotten on the floor and her music filling the room. A few minutes later, Klaus sat up again, turning to face her and holding out a hand. She took it without hesitation. _

_“I want to try something, and I don’t want to do it alone. Will you do it with me?”_

_"What is it?”_

_ “Weed.”_

_ “Klaus, where the hell did you g-“_

_"It doesn’t matter where I got it, it’s legitimate, will you try it with me?”_

_“If my mom catches us, she will kill you, she already doesn’t like that I hang out with so many boys.”_

_“That’s not answering my question.”_

_She sighed, feeling his fingers twitch against her palm. There was no way she was going to say no, not to something they could do together, not to those eyes. He wasn’t going to be left to do it alone. _

_“Fine, is it like, loose or did you buy a joint.”_

_“You know more about this than I thought you would.”_

_"Klaus, I go to public school.”_

_Standing up to push blankets against the cracks of her door and windows, she watched him empty his pockets from the corner of her eye, taking a seat next to him as she lit the incense on her nightstand. Taking the lighter from between her fingers, Klaus lit one of the small rolls from the bag before taking a mistakenly deep breath. _

_he couldn’t help but laugh at him coughing, taking the lit joint from his fingers and taking her own tiny puff. _

_You really don’t know how to do anything carefully, do you?”_

_Not really, no.”_

_Laying on the bed beside him, she puffed until he was breathing better again, passing it into his waiting hand and letting her cheek press into his shoulder as the bed sunk in from his laying next to her. It was quiet for a few minutes, her cd beginning again and an ambulance roaring by outside. Eventually he turned to face her, tucking his arm under his cheek as his blown pupils struggled to focus on her. The last of the joint went to her, the room now efficiently filled with smoke and the two teenagers giggling at each other._

_Before they knew it they were up again, talking about nothing and listening to every piece of music they could find in the house while sharing a bowl of popcorn tossed with whatever spice they had found in the cabinet. Danielle had shrieked when the bag continued to pop after she opened it, collapsing into the floor with him as they attempted to breathe through their laughter. She wound up in the floor of her room, his head in her lap as she wove her fingers through his curls and listened to him idly babble about his brothers. His voice was a blur to her, her focus on the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed and the way the green shifted with the changing colors of her lamp. _

_“Dani?”_

_"Yeah?”_

_“Are you listening?”_

_“No.”_

_They both fell into a fit of giggles, her legs tingling as he sat up and the feeling returned. She was still giggling when he held out a hand to her, hiccupping into the crook of her arm and taking his hand in hers. The flush on her cheeks turned darker at how warm he was, the nerves of her fingers feeling every line of his palm. Her heart sunk when he spoke._

_“Who else do you have a crush on?”_

_“Klaus-“_

_“C’mon, please tell me.”_

_“Klaus, i-“_

_“I won’t tell anyone else.”_

_“Klaus!” _

_His eyes widened, her voice never had never been raised at him like that before, but he seemed more amused than frightened. It took her a few minutes until her throat cleared, shifting in her seat to cross her legs and looking up at him through dark bangs. _

_“It’s you, Klaus, I like you.”_

_“Oh.”_

_The silence almost killed her, loosening her grip on him as she attempted to pull away. This was the only friend she felt fully comfortable to be herself around, and she had blown it all away with six words. _

_“It’s fine if you want to leave, I know you don’t li-“_

_It didn’t take much to move her, a small tug of her arm and their noses were nearly touching. She forced herself to look at him, fighting the feeling to run, and she was surprised. He didn’t seem disappointed, or disgusted, or anything she thought he would be. His eyes crinkled at the corners, sparking green. He was smiling, keeping his hold on her hand tight as she went slack from the shock and searched his face for an argument. She found none. _

_And then, she kissed him. _

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, me writing another story while my others sit unfinished? More likely than you'd think.


End file.
